Can You Text and Drive in This Great New Game?

I’d like to say sorry for this post coming out today. As I had to attend a friend’s graduation yesterday, I was unable to post. I do think however, that this post will make up for the delay.

Before we get down to business, let’s get one thing clear: texting and driving do not mix well. If you get caught by the police, you get a big ticket, and could possibly lose your license, depending on if you’re a repeat cell phone law violator. It’s incredibly dangerous, and can kill or injure a lot of people because you just couldn’t wait to respond. Never, ever pick your phone up while driving! Let’s all get one thing clear: texting and driving in the real world is much different than texting and driving in this hilarious new game called SMS Racing.

It’s a total remake of the 2013 browser game that had the same name. The 2015 version uses all new material, and it shares only a name and a concept with the original game.

It was built for the 2015 Oculus Mobile VR Jam, where many app and game developers are teamed up to create the most captivating VR experience possible.

We’ve all seen or heard of the dozens of texting and driving games out there, many of which are dry, boring attempts to teach teens the dangers of texting and driving at the same time. Enter SMS Racing. It’s a whole lot of fun. Let me tell you why.

When you start the race, you’re told to finish a lap as fast as you can while responding to text messages without crashing, all within a limited time frame.

An instructor talks to you during the race. She encourages you to keep up with all of your social connections, and to focus less on the road. This is when all of the sarcasm that the developers have kicks in. She tells you that texting is an important part of driving, and that it would be rude not to respond to your friends.

Should you fail to respond to a message within ten seconds, you are told to “…restart, or keep driving and reflect on how it feels to have no friends.” That’s cold.

The game has several features that were not in it previously. It has a Time Trial and a Race mode, a head tracking feature to change your view based on movement, artificial intelligence rivals who also text and drive, and city and suburb maps.

This review is based on various user reviews, plus video recordings of the game. I haven’t played it…yet, but if and when I have a chance, I will do a full review of it!

Users of the game say that the constant need to text can become frustrating at times, which only further demonstrates the sole purpose of the game.

They also say that when you finally get a lap in, you’ve probably cursed the game to hell and back, but you’ve probably crashed just as many times. In the end, it’s all smiles and a good chance to laugh at how ridiculous it is to put texting before driving.

Please don’t. Driving requires a lot of attention, and you could kill yourself or others because you just had to glance down at your phone. It can always wait. If you can’t wait, pull over in a safe spot and read the text or social media alert.

Here’s some video from the VR Jam. https://youtu.be/07hY2JenhMQ

You can check out the game, and even download it at http://vrjam.challengepost.com/submissions/36780-sms-racing

However, you need the proper VR gear, but if you do, it seems like it’s worth a shot.